Debrief!

Hello fellow Bandits!

I am starting this blog with yet another apology, sorry its been so long since I have written, no excuses, just laziness!

Two band fills and de-fill since I last blogged. I went back about a month after my last blog and they put 0.25 mls in my band! It was fine for the first day and a half, but then things got bad, really bad. It got to the point where I couldn't swallow my own saliva, I hadn't eaten or drunk anything in nearly two days and I felt, well, off my face to be honest!
I spent all of the final night in tears, being sick and calling the hospital where I had my op done. They were point blank useless! It was obvious even to someone that wasn't a medical professional that the band had over tightened and that I needed to get it deflated. They seemed too scared to say that it was over tightened and tried fobbing me off with Gavsicon (not an option when you cant swallow your own saliva!) and to wait till the morning. On reflection it was probably laziness, the paperwork probably seemed like a major hassle at 1am, then 2am, then again at 4am! After a lot of hard work on my behalf at around 10 am I finally spoke to a competent practitioner who tried to get me into to some clinics to get it deflated, none of their clinics could fit me/ had a clinic running. So in the end I had to go to a good old, trusted NHS Trust who fitted me in fairly promptly but charged me for the ability to drink again (£80, but worth every penny!)

The nurse who saw me said that patients who have this done on the NHS have their ports in a different position which would have been great, mine often catches on my bra when I sit down. Apparently, I have since found out you can have your port moved after you have finished loosing your weight under a local anesthetic.... I will consider it if I ever get to my goal! Banding is far from a quick fix. Infact, it's making weight watchers look like a quick fix in comparison to my weight loss at the moment! Still I am holding on to the fact I have lost nearly four stone (only half of which is thanks to the band), but I'm too scared to get on the scales at the moment.

When I had my band deflated they took 1.5mls out, back to square one, so utterly gutted. So for a month I had no restriction at all and it felt like I put half  a stone back on. When I had my band topped up a couple of days ago, she assured me I had only put on 1kg (approx 2.2lbs). She advised me to stay on a liquid and soft diet for longer post band fills, 2-3 days, so the over tightening didn't happen again. So I am entering day three of liquid, though I may branch into a little scrambled egg for lunch!

Side effects, I still get the shoulder pain, STILL! But I have come to except them as my new hunger pains! And eating too much gives me a stitch, the only way is to lie down on my side, just like the Romans!

I will endevour to do a better job of keeping you all posted, and I may brave the scales at some point, untill then Bandits, night night xxx